Dark HuntersThe Harvest
by Floppybunny
Summary: Acheron has wandered for thousands of centuries doing what he was told, Artemis lording him like  a dog...And although she's kept secrets from his knowledge before, the one that's coming is the biggest lie she's ever told him. Who is Lexidren Hekate?
1. Chapter 1

Lexi had been running and bouncing off city walls for about three years now. The world was colorless and cold, Diamons were Diamons and Appollites were dangerous too. Artemis had ping ponged Lexi's ass all over the globe in hopes of keeping her away from Achereon. However, Lexi didn't plan on taking the red headed bitches orders much longer. She'd been given specific instruction to never come near New Orleans. Yet…as she entered the Inferno's front doors, she was home. She took a deep breath keeping in mind that Were-hunters didn't like her kind, and stayed next to the bar scoping the place out. There was heavy music flowing from the speakers and people all squished together on the floor. Dante watched her carefully. He'd never seen this runt of a Dark Hunter before.

She was slender, short, and had fiery red curls that spilled to her shoulders. Her skin was paler than Talons, but her hide was thick. He could tell she wasn't about to let anyone shit on her from the way she stood shooting down a vodka shot. The girl was silently observing his club, but not the same way Wulf and Ash did, she wasn't looking for Diamons. She was simply playing a wallflower…a deadly nasty one. He arched a brow as she tilted her head her dark eyes watching a Katagaria boy move to the outer rims of the dance floor. He didn't like the way she watched him. He didn't like Dark Hunters much to begin with, let alone a female one who looked about ready to take the boy to her bed.

Lexi sighed standing there. The boy was drop dead hunk. He was her physical age, she only outdated him by three years mentally anyway. He was young, a new Katagaria Soldier, she could tell. It was also mating season which meant he was a bit more puffed up than he should be. She wanted that. She wanted to walk over, grab the boys shirt, and kiss him something fierce. However, her need to keep her head intact outweighed her sexual appetite. Dante would immediately slaughter her if she even dared talk to the boy. She huffed, leaning back against the bar and closed her eyes listening to the music. Artemis was going to god bolt her into Kalosis when she found out she'd disobeyed her and come here. No other Dark Hunters were here yet, she knew because her powers weren't draining. Her phone buzzed in her back pocket.

"What?" she snapped picking it up figuring it was business. Jess rolled his eyes as he heard her harsh deadly tone of voice. He could also hear the music in the background which suddenly changed his train of thought.

"Little girl, where the HELL are you?" he sullenly snapped back.

"Inferno. Got a problem? Come drag my ass out. I dare you." She touched the end button and put her phone back in her pocket. Fine, she wanted to play that game. Jess knew he had to get her away from New Orleans before the Goddess killed her. Artemis had a very good reason for keeping her away from Ash, and she'd shared it with him a long time ago…nobody knew and it was supposed to stay that way. He saddled up his backpack since he knew she didn't know he'd been put in New Orleans recently for other reasons, she'd be shocked to find him in fact "dragging her ass out" as she'd requested. He just had to get there before Ash and Kyrian did tonight.

Kryain entered the bar with his friend Ash, both lethal and deadly looking as hell. They were tall, handsome and dark clothed. Any human kept a wide berth around them as they walked towards the bar. Kryian was in the midst of telling Ash about his son's latest endeavor with the wonderful word "boobies" when Ash froze. He saw a tuff of messy vibrantly red curls spill over a young girls shoulder as she moved to talk with Dante near the side of the room.

"What?" Kryian questioned following his gaze, his jaw slacked a bit. "Is that a baby Dark Hunter?" he snapped his eyes narrowing. Artemis hadn't made a new Dark Hunter in a very long time, and judging by the raw power this girl possessed she hadn't been a Dark Hunter very long, maybe a couple of years.

"Yeah, and I'm willing to bet that she shouldn't be here." Ash quipped before walking towards the direction that Dante had taken her. He put a hand on her arm and jerked her back towards the wall, she reacted faster than she should have. Dante found his ass on the floor, her boot on his chest as she glared down at him.

"Touch me again and you'll be a dead panther, got it?" she asked smirking down at him.

"I think tormenting the owner of the club isn't a smart idea there little girl." Ash said touching the blade at his waist hoping he wouldn't have to use it on her. It seemed like it would be a waist to kill her, since she was so strong. Her undiluted anger was now turned on him, her dark eyes bore a chill through to his bones. And that hadn't happened in a very very long time. Seeing as Ash was the first Dark Hunter ever made, it wasn't said often that anyone or anything scared him much.

"And I don't think you talking to me is such a great idea either." She chuckled as she looked up into the six foot man's face.

"Who are you?" he asked pulling her off Dante's body so he could get back up, Kryian moved between them holding the Were-Hunter back.

"Woah, woah, woah big guy…chill out. We'll take care of it. She's outta here right now, I swear." Ash was already hauling the little redhead towards the exit. She growled under her breath but let him, because secretly she was pleased. She'd found Achereon the Dark Hunter, and Artemis was never going to separate her from him. She'd kill the bitch if she tried, because Ash wasn't just some guy. Ash was the soul mate Artemis never wanted him to find. And something told Ash that there was something strange about this little kid as well. Clad in her leather bustier and biker jacket, leather pants, and combat boots, the young girls curls were like a target. It didn't seem to bother her that everyone could notice her. It seemed she was welcoming it. Jess came up short cussing in the middle of the street as he saw Ash shove Lexi out into the street and back her up against the brick alley wall on the other side of the street.

"I said, who are you?" he asked Kryain stood a few feet away watching ready for battle.

"Lexidren Hekate. But you can call me Lexi for short Achereon." She grinned up into those misting swirling eyes and they both felt a shockwave tear through their bodies.


	2. Chapter 2

Acheron froze feeling the shockwave rupture through his body. For a split second, his mind was blank. All the voices inside his head stopped talking. It was as if the moment he truly looked down at Lexidren and met her eyes, that he was lost within her. Forget the fact that she didn't have a soul, her entire being was aching for him. Calling to him…hers' was the only voice that he could hear now. It was begging for him to dip his head down and gently kiss her. It was all he could do to take a small breath and step back from her body angrily. If what she said was true, and being Acheron he had a very definite feeling that it was, then Artemis had lied to him. She'd lied worse to him now than she ever had before and he would make her pay …he …HE … had a soul mate. He'd had a soul mate for the last twenty some years. He glanced down at her with those eerie swirling silver eyes to catch her mouthing something to Kyrian behind him. His right eye twitched.

"Help?" she'd mouthed to him. Confused, Lexi didn't know how to deal with Acheron the way she assumed, or hoped, his old friend did.

"Little girl, I can see what you're saying." She froze and looked up at him to catch him watching her. A vibrant red girl fell in her eyes.

"Well, can you at least say something to me then?" He hadn't realized he'd been silent for well over ten minutes just letting the shock of things settle over him.

"You need to go back to wherever you were stationed." She blanched. Lexi drained of all color, which was saying something because she was paler than the moon, and her shoulders dropped a little bit. There was suddenly a heavy knot within her stomach and her hands clenched into fists at her sides. For how many years now she'd been trying to deny Artemis to find Acheron…and it hadn't mattered. After the shockwave that had split through them both, it didn't matter. He didn't want her. He didn't care. She should have known better. Shoving Ash away she blustered past them both and headed down the street towards her Harley. She grabbed her Oakley sunglasses and shoved them on stubbornly to hide the tears that were threatening to spill forth from her eyes.

"You just gonna let her leave like that?" Kyrian asked him shaking his head. "Ash I know you better than that, I just watched you shiver as if she was touching your soul." Ash snorted turning an icy glare at his friend.

"I don't have a soul." He put his own sunglasses on. "Simi, take human form." From beneath his biker jacket, Simi moved forward from a hazy blur to a beautiful black haired female wearing a plain purple skirt and a lacy black corset. She carried her favorite coffin purse on her arm tilting her head like a bird towards Ash she frowned.

"My Akri upset, why my Akri upset?" she asked "Did that heifer goddess hurts you?" he shook his head.

"No Sim. Take care of Marissa while I'm gone alright?" she nodded and moved to stand beside Kryian, she loved watching after Marissa his eldest daughter.

"Where are y…." Kryian stopped talking as Ash disappeared suddenly sighing. That was just like Acheron, disappear before you could even ask him a question.

Lexi drove her bike hard and almost out of gas before she hit a small out of town hotel. She swerved into the parking lot with the screeching tires of a demon, and parked it yanking her keys out of the emission. She walked into the old run down office part of the flat one floor hotel and shook the gentle rain off herself bouncing curls. The man behind the counter looked scared when she came in, taking her clothing options and sunglasses (at night), taking in a sharp breath he straightened.

"One room." She said before he could even ask, she slammed a shiny credit card on the table and waited for him to give her the keys. He crossed himself with a catholic cross when she took the keys and turned around leaving without even pausing she told him to charge a tip to the credit card and any food she ordered as well.

Lexi opened the shitty hotel room door and shut it behind herself seething. She'd let her heart rule her being, and she'd now been ripped apart. It was more anger than anything else, anger that Artemis had been right. She remembered what the bitch goddess had said to her painfully, "He can't love you and he wouldn't anyway. So don't bother." She bit her lip and slung her jacket off onto the chair by the door and kicked her boots off while sitting on the bed. Her eyes stung when she took off the sunglasses but it wasn't from the moonlight outside shinning in through the window. For the first time in years, Lexi wanted to sob. She felt so betrayed by her own heart. Why had she even hoped for any moment that anyone could mean anything to her? She turned on her side snarling to herself frustrated. She hated herself at this moment more than she'd ever hated herself before. Not even when she'd died was she more mad than she was for her own stupidity.

_Those who let the heart rule their actions, were dead._

Simply put she'd already known that. In fact, most Dark Hunter's would shit themselves if they had an inkling of what Lexi really was. Artemis had screwed up making her, she wasn't supposed to exist and yet Lexi's soul had screamed so loudly at her death, Artemis had no choice but to answer her. Pure rage had taken her over when she'd died, rage at being taken advantage of. Being raped. Lexi let the tears from earlier slid down her freckled cheeks. They were warm and comforting, things she'd never known. She had been too young to truly experience love. Sure, she'd had slutty encounters, but that wasn't much and high school relationships sure as hell didn't count. She pulled the pillow over her head as she cried thinking about her past. A past she'd shut out so long ago…

The darkness was all consuming on the night that lacked a moon, and yet Lexi prowled the corner pockets of an old vineyard that had long since been used. She could smell them. The diamons that resided here, they were bloated on magic and sated with lust for souls. She had to fight with herself from growling, which would have alerted them to her presence. She needed to keep her calm. A calm that for a large female cougar was less than normal. Her tail swished behind her angrily as she found them sitting within a large mansion living room around a table sipping wine laughing. Tonight they'd killed her den. Her entire group was gone and all because of her Arcadian bearings while they had been Katagarai…she should have been there. She was pissed. Born as a bastard cub her den had hated her, but she'd served them. She'd loved them…and they were dead. That wouldn't stand. She would kill them. All of them.

She waited until they're senses were dulled and they're guards were down. She stalked behind the house and slinked through the long mahogany doors which they'd left open. They were talking in slow lumbered voices, planning another attack on New Orleans. She growled before she could stop herself, she knew her cousin den living under Dante was there, not that she'd ever met him, but she would not see them lost. They shot to their feet in the dim candle light and on man clad in black leather pants and a silk wine shirt walked into the room. He grinned, his long canines shinning in the moonlight that poured in from within the window.

"Well, look, one survived." Stryker chuckled crossing his arms over his chest. "Come for revenge pretty little kitty?" she snarled hissing loudly baring her own fangs at him her fur bristling.

"What should we do with him akri?" a commanding general of Stryker's asked glaring at Lexi. "Kill it?" he asked smirking. Stryker shook his head.

"Nail it down, have what you want from it, and skin it. I want this one's stupid brave pelt on my mantle at home." She burned and saw red at his words. He wanted a pelt? He could choke on his own dark hair when she ripped it off his head and shoved it down his throat. She growled and lunged at him her muscles bunching in her hind legs but she felt a cold dread fill her when a bolt of lightning hit her square in the chest. She fell to the floor in human form withering changing back and forth between cougar and human. Her eyes watered from the pain, he wasn't just a fucking diamon! He was a god. She wanted to hurl, cuss, spit, scratch, fight…oh god just to fight…

By the time she was able to gain a hold of her human base form she'd been tied down. Her wrists were bleeding and she growled deep within the back of her throat pulling at them. Instantly three males grabbed her arms and a leg snapping her back down on the bed; She snarled and pulled kicking and yanking, anything to get away and out of their grasp. They held her down violently and with the strength of anyone who was not a regular diamon. The general stood in front of her stark naked on the bed.  
>"You're not going anywhere." He chuckled bending over her on the bed. She snapped biting his arm when he reached for her face and he cussed pulling his arm back raking it across her cheek. Her vision blurred and she realized she was weak, they'd fed on her already…she could feel the dull ache in her shoulders and neck where they'd bitten her. Part of her was missing, part of her that wanted to fight more than she was, a piece of her soul had been taken. Horror stretched across her being as he settled himself between her thighs and looked over her face grabbing her chin to make her look at him.<p>

"You shouldn't have tried for revenge…because now you're going to die." Pain exploded between her legs and against her neck, he was violating her and she knew it. She wanted to push him out of herself and off, but he had already begun to drain her life force completely. She knew she would die now…and when the last breath poured from her body, the general finished destroying it with a vicious stroke that jerked her lifeless body. He'd sated himself with soul and lust…and her soul should have entered his being…

But Artemis froze as she heard the loudest ear-pinching screech she'd ever listened to enter her chambers on the winds of Olympus. A young girl's soul was bellowing beyond the realms of death and there wasn't much time before it would be lost. Artie could feel it. She hesitated knowing the soul was Arcadian…knowing it was being taken by a diamon….she couldn't help it. She summoned the soul to her chambers and from the diamon's body before it was trapped. As Lexi stood ethereally before a slender short red haired woman, she sucked in a breath tilting her head feeling her power.

"So, You want revenge do you?" Artie had said to her…but that was before she'd realized what Lexi's soul held…before she truly looked at her…before she knew she belonged to Ash.

She sighed as the memories washed over her, only to find sadly that she was still alone, still desperately in love with a man she barely knew, and still without the revenge she'd been promised against Stryker. She growled burying her face deeper in the pillow, if only it could smother her. She'd take that welcome reprieve from being an Arcadian Dark Hunter any day. Her eyes held tightly shut, warm tears still flowing, Lexi forced her body to sleep. She'd need it for the travel back home the next night, barring she didn't try to kill herself by opening the curtains in the morning. She sighed and drifted off into a fitful nightmare of what was her past…as Acheron slammed the doors to Artemis's temple wide open his angry glare pinning the goddess.

"ARTIE!" he snarled his eyes changing red.


	3. Chapter 3

Ash glared at Artemis and crossed the room faster than she had time to sit up from her chair. He lorded over her shoving her down onto the chair again, his hand gripped her should until the skin turned white beneath her curls. His eyes swirled like raging fire and his skin took it's natural tone setting off his hair which he'd colored red this past week.

"You fucking bitch! You lied to me." He growled dangerously his powers swirling out of control. If she didn't stop him, he'd alert the other gods that he was here and THAT would be sheer hell.

"I never lied to you!" she shrieked trying to break his grip, he shoved her down on the couch like bench and stayed her there. Glowering down at her, he narrowed his eyes.

"You didn't tell me about her." She sucked in a breath and he got the answer he was looking for, she had known about Lexidren and she'd kept it from him. He threw his head back roaring and that was it. His powers surged and radiated outward from his body encasing the room encapsulating it within a wave of energy. Artemis shrunk against the fabric of the couch cowering her eyes wide, she had to get out of her or get him out of her before the entirety of Olympus was destroyed. Ash flexed his fist and pulled it back to smash it through her curled framed face. Suddenly there was a huge bright flash that cracked throughout the entire room and someone grabbed Ash from behind. In the blink of an eye, he was gone. Artie stood up shaking calling for her handmaidens to come back into the room. Apollo stood in the doorway wide eyed and slightly perturbed watching his sister.

"You are damn lucky Savitar just got the best of Ash during his anger." He snapped at her slamming her temple doors shut. She sat nimbly on the couch taking a few slow breaths. She'd fucked up…and that was putting it lightly.

Savitar growled throwing Ash in his god form against the wall of his villa. "Are you crazy! Get a grip Acheron." He snapped his long blonde hair swinging about his shoulders sticking to his neck. He was in his normal wetsuit; his hair was still soaked with the ocean salts. Ash whirled turning his anger on the older god before Savitar bested him again, a powerful wave of nothing hit him and knocked him to the ground pinning him there.

"Stay out of my way! Artemis deserves what she has coming." He snarled kneeling down over the other man poising his arm to strike him in the chest.

"Yeah she does, but at what cost will vengeance on the goddess take on you Acheron?" he snapped breathing in relief when the swirling silvery mist that consumed Ash's eyes came back. His shoulders dropped and he sat back on the floor watching Savitar sit up. He rubbed his neck and lower back half glaring at Ash for a moment.

"I'm not too old to kick your ass little god." He growled at Ash to remind him of his place. Ash nodded and looked at the wall to his right which was painted the blue of the ocean that the older man in front of him loved.

"She…" he began but Savitar raised a hand to silence him.

"I know what she did, but you need to control yourself, or you'll sign Lexidren to a death sentence." Ash gaped at him slightly.

"How do…" He growled when he cut him off again growing tired of the were-counselor treating him like a child.

"She is Arcadian. The last of her kind as well. She'd be a regis if I could let her, but since she chose being a dark hunter I'm not permitted to let her sit on my council." Ash had not picked up that power or scent from her, nor did he ever remember an Arcadian or Katagaria dark hunter since Ravyn Kontis.

"How can I get to her…please…" Ash whispered desperate to know her now. No wonder the girl had been so hurt when he'd rejected her, she was not allowed any company ever. No pack or den would allow her entrance, and no dark hunter wanted the trouble of dealing with a were hunter. They caused enough trouble before they were dead half the time.

Lexi sat up in the shitty hotel room bed listening to the crinkling of the mattress cover beneath the sheets annoyed her. She'd drained her powers last night by revisiting her past, the one thing that could drain her was reliving or re-watching the night she died…or watching it happen to someone else. She rubbed her temples and got up to go to the bathroom and soak herself in the tub for a while before she'd return back to sleep. Rest and bathing. Those two things alone were her only comforts in this lifetime. She had no one and nothing to count on but herself. She looked at her green eyes in the mirror that mimicked the aching bone tiredness that halted the rest of her body. What she wouldn't give to just die right now. She needed to get online and chat with Zoe and Jessie in the chatrooms for a couple of hours to remove the pain she felt in her chest. A pain she shouldn't feel at all. Zoe would tell her to castrate all men and zap Ash with a few thousand jolts of lightening, while Jess would play devil's advocate and pretend there was a good reason for Ash to not want to see her. She shivered sitting on the bed pulling out her laptop to boot it up and plug it into the wall, when her cell phone started ringing. At the same time someone knocked on her front door and she also felt a pang in her lower stomach. Something wasn't right, there was something bad happening and something evil was causing it.

"Lexi?" a male's voice said gruffly. She sighed and got up to go open the door, nobody called her Lexi unless the somehow knew her, so when she opened the door to see Stryker standing there, her world turned black.

"Hello little kitty cat. Are you ready to relive our first date?" she growled loudly and turned grabbing a small dagger at her hip to plunge into his chest hilt to tip, but he grabbed her arms and flipped her slamming her against the wall. His putrid warm breath spilled over the back of her neck as he held her there, her cheek had hit the wall so hard it had split and was bleeding.

"Get your fucking hands off me!" she yelled kicking back at him. He kept his legs spread enough that she couldn't get a good shot at the lower region she was aiming for.

"Now, now…wouldn't want me to hurt Ash would we?" she stiffened and stopped fighting instantly as a dark hunter walked into the room…with the same swirling eyes that Stryker and Ash both possessed.

Nick Gautier watched them both hesitantly before he stuffed his hands in his pockets cutting a sideways glance at Stryker. His dark shoulder length hair brushed his shoulders as he tilted his head slightly like a child watching their parents.

"So, we can hurt him by using her?" he asked pure venom in his voice. Stryker nodded pulling Lexi off the wall and turned her to make her look at Nick. She knew him. She'd met him once or twice, but she hadn't known him really. She'd known he'd gone missing for a couple years before there were rumors online from Otto that Nick was back and a Dark Hunter. However, the man standing in front of her wasn't a Dark Hunter, he was…she didn't know what he was honestly.

"She is the bait. He now knows that she is his soul mate. You can destroy him by making her suffer in front of him. Tell him that by giving himself to us willingly to die you will let her go free. He will be bound to his word, but do not specify how you will let her go free. No matter if he asks how you'll free her or not, do not answer. He will assume you will. But you will not. Nick, you will kill her in front of him and make him watch while we've stolen his powers. And then," he grinned happily. "I will kill him in front of my mother." Lexi's head was spinning. They were going to kill Ash? Why? Last she knew Nick had been one of Ash's best friends. Her ears rang and she tried to jerk from Stryker's grip.

"Stay still bitch!" he snapped and a lightning bolt hit her back. She screamed dropping to the floor changing from cougar to human on the floor by Nick's feet. But it wasn't how helpless and what kind of memories this brought back as she struggled to regain her base form. It was the the look on Nick's face. The pure hatred, emptiness, and the shame that bore him deep to his core. He knew this wasn't right, but he wanted to hurt Ask more than anything else. She needed to get out of here, now. She needed Acheron to save erh, and yet she knew he didini't care.


End file.
